Spacecraft unveils 1st-ever images of sun's south pole: 'Beginning of a new era'

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Spacecraft unveils 1st-ever images of sun's south pole: 'Beginning of a new era' European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, which launched from Florida in 2020, got a historic look at the sun's south pole.
Plenty of spacecraft and telescopes have throughout the years been able to observe the sun up close – with plenty more missions on the way.
In late-December 2024, NASA's Parker Solar Probe got closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it. Earlier that same month, the European Space Agency sent a pair of satellites toward the sun to create "solar eclipses on demand."
And in March, NASA sent four small satellites on its PUNCH mission to study how the sun's outer atmosphere becomes solar wind.
But no spacecraft has ever gotten a good look at either of the sun's poles.
Until now.
In March, a spacecraft captured the first-ever clear images of the sun's south pole, which the European Space Agency released Wednesday, June 11.
'We reveal humankind's first-ever views of the sun's pole,' Carole Mundell, director of science for the European Space Agency, said in a statement. 'These new unique views from our Solar Orbiter mission are the beginning of a new era of solar science.'
Here's a look at what the Solar Orbiter captured, and why ESA officials believe it will help scientists better understand our life-giving host star.
Solar Orbiter: Newly-released photos capture the sun in highest resolution ever
ESA orbiter gets 1st look at sun's south pole
Before you saw the picture above, any image you have ever seen of the sun was taken from around its equator.
Why? Because Earth, like all the planets in our solar system, orbits the sun along a line across a flat, disc-shaped plane in the sky known as the ecliptic. That means all the spacecraft we launch into orbit tend to do so as well.
But by tilting the Solar Orbiter's orbit out of that plane, the ESA was able to reveal the sun from a brand new angle.
The process began in February 2025 when the Solar Orbiter passed closely by Venus for a gravitational boost that allowed the spacecraft to push itself out of the orbital plane to see the sun at a higher angle. Then on March 23, the Solar Orbiter whizzed by the sun at an angle of 17 degrees, as compared to the 7 degree-orbit of all the planets and other sun-observing spacecraft, to get some historic snapshots of the south pole.
A few days prior, the Solar Orbiter was also able to view the sun from an angle of 15 degrees below the equator while using its fleet of on-board instruments to observe the sun in different wavelengths – including visible light and ultraviolet light.
The images were taken as the sun's peak activity, known as its solar maximum, begins to wind down. ESA scientists believe that studying the sun's polar regions could be key to unlocking secrets about the sun's 11-year solar cycle, which can cause space weather that disrupts satellites and even causes northern lights to flourish.
"The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behavior," Mundell said.
What is the Solar Orbiter?
The Solar Orbiter launched February 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida with 10 scientific instruments to study the sun.
Its mission? Gather images of the sun from closer than any spacecraft before it and study the hot star's polar regions to understand things like the sun's atmosphere, its solar cycle and how solar wind forms.
In November, the ESA released images the Solar Orbiter obtained in March 2023 that the agency said are the highest-resolution views of the sun's surface, known as the photosphere, to date.
Solar Orbiter also got a look at sun's north pole
According to the ESA, the best views from the Solar Orbiter are yet to come.
In the coming years, the Solar Orbiter will continue to orbit around the sun at even higher angles, reaching as much as 33 degrees in July 2029.
Scientists at the ESA also expect to receive images of the north solar pole by October that the Solar Orbiter has already taken.
'This is just the first step," Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter project scientist for the ESA, said in a statement. "In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions."
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [e-mail]